Gay lions have been spotted love-making in Kenya

One of the best things about animals is that you'll never know what they're going to do next. While it can be sometimes frightening - like a bear attacking you, or a elephant charging in your general direction - it's usually pretty humorous. More often than not, animals are only a second away from doing something absurd and this enigmatic nature is part of the reason why we love them so dearly.

However, if you saw two male lions heading off into the bushes together, you would more than likely think that they are walking off to have a fight with one and other. But this wasn't the case for two male lions in Kenya, who were captured in the midst of some affectionate love-making while hidden away in the bushes.

While sex between male and female lions can be a violent affair, the two male lions were seeing nuzzling up to each other post-boning.

Paul Goldstein, the man behind the photos, said that he saw the two animals standing side-by-side in Kenya's Masai Mara, before one of them lay down and was mounted by the other. Mr Goldstein, who works as a guide for Exodus Travels, said:

"Sometimes you just see something that takes your breath away. I was guiding in the Masai Mara recently and we saw two impressive alpha males in perfect light. After a while they stood together, in perfect symmetry. What then happened was remarkable."

"I have heard of this happening in Botswana but with nothing like this vigour, and indeed at various zoos and safari parks, but incarcerated animals will do strange things, who can blame them."

"This however was astonishing. I normally loathe any sort of humanising with animals and our documentary channels are full of it, but this was not only surprising but it was impossible not to smile.

"When lions mate it normally last a few seconds, these two were at it for over a minute and the obvious affection afterwards was very evident, as opposed to the violent withdrawal when male and female mate.

"Even as he dismounted he did not back off as is normal after mating, he crept round to the other male's muzzle, for a nuzzle and threw a conspiratorial wink his way."

While male lions engaging in a round of lovemaking is rare, it's not completely unheard of. Studies that were published in the 20th century indicated that around eight per cent of "mountings" performed by male lions tends to be on other males. They have also been shown to court other lions, including showing affection, caressing as well as mounting their male counterparts.

Lions aren't the only animal species where homosexual activity seems to exist. Biologists have recorded same sex sexual activity in over 450 species including flamingos, bisons, beetles and warthogs. In a 2010 study into Alaskan Albatrosses, it was found that a third of the pairs that were studied actually consisted of two females.

Even though homosexual behaviour in Lions isn't as rare as you might think it would be, it's still pretty mad to see. Who knows, maybe there was more to Mufasa and Scar's relationship than meets the eye?